defying ragnarok
by Titania Eli
Summary: Time travel AU. They had discussed the possibility, had spent two years rewriting and modifying Last Ages, trying to defy paradox and the Rules of Magic. Meredy had warned him that they might not succeed, that he might die. But he has nothing left to lose anyway.
1. Chapter 1

**defying ragnarok**

* * *

"_This is the way the world ends_

_Not with a bang but a whimper."_

In the end, they were the last ones left in a broken world. In the end, there were fewer than a hundred people left in Fiore. If there were other survivors that had once been their ally or friend still alive, they surely had scattered elsewhere. They do not know of anyone else but each other.

In the end, only Lyon and Meredy were left.

At first, they still had Jellal, even as much as a shattered man he was after his wife had passed. But then Jellal was gone too. Whereas there had been three before, now there were only two.

Lyon couldn't remember how he had come to travelling with the strange duo, only that he was lost after losing the last of his guild. Meredy became his best friend, his dearest sister. One half of the same soul.

It was Meredy's idea first. To turn back time, to rewind the past, to change _everything_. _To save everyone. _

After she had lost Jellal, she became desperate and angry and determined. She started scavenging for books and texts on ancient and lost magic. He had chalked it up to grief at first. He was worried, but he had not said anything. At least it gave her something to do.

Until she started talking about _time travel. _She tried to convince him to go along with her plan, and yes, he had been sceptical at first. But loss and longing eventually won out.

Meredy was right. What did he have to lose anyway?

"_Ultear has a spell. It's called 'Last Ages'. She used it once. It was in the battle of the future Rogue and dragons during the Grand Magic Games." Meredy explained._

"_I remember. For a second, I could see the future of the next minute. That's because of her, right?" he asked, realization settling over his face. "She saved Gray."_

"_Yes, she turned back the clock, but only managed to rewind the time for a minute." She nodded gravely. "But instead of one minute, we need to go back eight years."_

_He skimmed through the old texts on Arc of Time again. Time was a tricky thing. Very complex and extremely dangerous to toy around with. That's why it's a Lost Magic to begin with._

"_From what it says in the book, it seems like the spell rewinds time for the _world_, at the cost of the user's life. But we're not sending the world back. We're only sending the user back." He frowned. _

"_Spell writing is not really my forte." Meredy said uncertainly, biting her lip._

_He looked at her mildly. "Are you giving up already?"_

"_No way!" she said loudly, head snapping up in offense. _

"_Then we have no problem." He smiled slightly. "We're both smart, right? We'll figure it out."_

_She relaxed, the lines on her face easing. It wasn't fair. She was barely thirty-five, and she already has stress lines on her face. _

"_Now, tell me more about Last Ages." He said encouragingly._

It took two years. Two whole years breaking the spell down and reforming it to suit their needs. Two years trying to find a way to break the Rules of Magic, to break the barrier between time and space.

In the end, they needed to destroy the world. Needed to obliterate the future to remake the past.

It was the easiest decision to make. The world was already destroyed anyway. No plants regrew anymore. The climate was too harsh. They hadn't seen the sun for years. The two of them managed to survive for this long due to sheer will and stubborn determination. Food was scarce, water even less so.

Trying to decide who to send back was harder. It was impossible to send both of them back. For Meredy, it was the easiest decision to make. She chose to stay behind.

They spent weeks arguing, with Meredy throwing every damn reason out why Lyon was better suited to go back instead of her.

Oh, she wanted to see Ultear. And Jellal and Juvia and Gray. And all the people she had come to love and became friends with.

But she knew Lyon had more to go back to. She didn't say anything, but she was dying anyway. Sickness had catch up with her. Her time was running out. She knew it, and Lyon knew it too.

The only thing she could do was give Lyon back his past.

Then they journeyed back to the land that had once been the proud city of Magnolia. Now it was a burned husk of nothing.

But they weren't back for the city anyway. They were looking for the one thing that would power their spell.

Lumen Histoire.

Fairy Tail's greatest secret. And now, their one weapon.

They needed the vast magic to power the modified version of Last Ages. The Eternano in Lumen Histoire should be enough to rewind ten years of time.

"So this is it." Meredy whispered, the teal light of Lumen Histoire casting a strange, ethereal radiance over her. "After two years..."

He gently took her hand. Her fingers automatically entwined with his. She looked up at him with an anxious smile.

"There's a chance you could die, Lyon." She said softly. "We may fail."

He chuckled tiredly. "At the least we had tried. What do we have to lose?"

"Nothing." She giggled, eyes soft and hopeful. She glanced at Lumen Histoire again, her eyes glittering an unearthly green from the light. "I feel like I'm dreaming. Here I am, standing in front of Fairy Tail's light and darkness, at the end of the world, going to attempt something so absurdly _stupid _that will not only kill me, but could also kill you too. If Ultear was here..." Tears welled up in her eyes. "She would have screamed and slapped me in the face."

"And then she would tell you how proud she is of you for being so strong all these years." He said quietly. "I'm going to miss you, Meredy."

She looked up at him and took both his hands in hers.

"No matter if it's the me now or the me in the past, you're still my brother, understand?" she said firmly. "I love you. You're my family. And the younger me will learn to love you again. You just have to give her time, okay?"

As they speak, she gently led him towards Lumen Histoire, closer and closer until the sheer vastness of its magic started to burn through their clothes and scorched their skin.

"I love you, Lyon, never forget that. And you're going to tell little me everything we had gone through together, good and bad. You're going to tell her that you're my family, you're mine and it's her job to protect you since I can't do it anymore." Runes tattooed across Meredy's sleeveless arms as she stood serene despite the heat.

"Please don't do this to me." He whispered, his voice breaking. "I don't think I can do this without you, Meredy."

"Don't cry." She smiled. "Of course you can. You're one of the strongest men I ever know. You won't be alone. I will be here." She pressed a hand against his chest. "I'm not leaving you at all. Always, always remember that you are not alone."

He felt the world trembled under the weight of such ancient magic, the ground shaking beneath his feet. He glanced up and he saw time slowing down. Meredy's fluttering hair froze mid action. The small, broken debris soaring up towards the sky from the force of the magic paused and stopped moving.

He felt Meredy's shaking hands tightened around his, her green eyes wide and moist. His own eyes felt wet as he stared back at her, tears running down his cheeks shamelessly.

"Be brave, Lyon." She mouthed.

Time resumed moving, ripping everything to pieces. The chaos became a roar in his ears, the light around the couple glowing so bright he had to shut his eyes. Even then, he could feel the light searing his eyes behind the eyelids.

"_Be brave." _And then the world imploded.

* * *

_So, what do you guys think? I actually wrote an entire draft detailing up till the Grand Magic Games' third day. But I decided to rewrite it as I have changed quite a few things, including the beginning. And started revising on the changes Lyon would make instead of blindly following canon, especially now that Tartarus was explained more fully in the manga. _


	2. Chapter 2

His eyes opened slowly, taking in the world around him. He didn't get up immediately, taking the time to soak in his surroundings and reorganized the memories in his head of a future that had not happened yet. They had done it.

He felt a presence near him and he stiffened, sitting up quickly. Instantly, spots swam before his eyes and he had to fight back the nausea.

"Lie back down, you idiot!" A shrill female voice croaked in irritation. He choked back a cough as a hand swat at his chest. The force knocked him back onto the bed.

"Master..." he gasped. Lamia Scale's elderly Master squinted down at him. God, she died so long ago... He could barely remember how she had looked like.

"Lie still and stop moving. You lost quite a bit of magic. Don't go stressing yourself out any further!" she yelled at him. "You're one of my best mages. You should take better care of yourself. To collapse without warning is not accepted! Especially on the day before the Grand Magic Games?!"

"Wha – What exactly happened?" he rasped tiredly.

Ooba harrumphed loudly. "You didn't come back last night, so Jura went looking for you. Then you released a huge amount of magic in the city. It lasted for a few seconds before your magic abruptly vanished. When Jura found you, you were unconscious and everything around you was frozen. You lost a large amount of magical power and your physical strength is suffering for it now."

"F – Frozen?" he stammered. _Shit._ Did he attract too much unneeded attention?

What Meredy and he had sent back was essentially his soul instead of his physical body. A soul with memories of a thirty six-year-old man. Perhaps the shock of all those strange memories suddenly slamming back into the younger him sent his magic into an instinctive lockdown against the foreign invasion.

"I – I don't remember anything." He said, disorientated. "Did anyone else –?"

"Only those nearby." Ooba waved his concerns aside. "Besides, the preliminary event started straight after Jura brought you back. Sherry had to take over you, for last night and today as well."

"I – I apologize, Master." He grimaced against the headache.

"Enough, we still have six more days for a chance for you to compete. Just rest yourself." Ooba grumbled. She turned to leave, stopping to look at him in a searching manner. "You sure you can't remember anything? Like someone attacking you?"

"N – No. Just that my head hurts a lot." He murmured, eyelids heavy. Ooba hummed under her breath thoughtfully, her gaze suspicious, but she didn't say anything and left the room.

The footsteps faded away and he slowly allowed a grim smile to spread over his face.

The spell worked. He was back. He came back to ten years ago. His smile faded when he realized that his Meredy was gone.

But everyone was alive, even though these people were not _his_ friends and family. It wouldn't be the same anymore.

Was it worth it? To destroy the old broken world in the future? Abandon the comrades he had fought and bled alongside with? To save this strange, new yet old past, a past that he had already lived through once and faced a bunch of strangers that had used to be his friends in the future?

_Of course it was worth it,_ Meredy's voice whispered in his ear. He wasn't alone. He's going to right his mistakes and save everyone and create a better, happier future.

Before he realized it, his eyes were closed.

_"Be brave, Lyon."_

He fell asleep to Meredy's gentle voice, and he's not sure if he's dreaming or awake anymore.

* * *

A hundred miles away, a young woman woke up screaming as vague flashes of images plagued her dreams. Dreams of terror and fear, of fire ravaging the lands, burning everything in its path. Of blood on her hands, of friends dying in her arms, and she was_ too helpless and useless to stop it._

No, not dreams. Such horrifying images could only be a nightmare. A nightmare that felt so real. She could remember the grey sky above her head, the ever present smoky fog in the air that blackened her lungs, the fear and anxiety of being caught and the loneliness... oh, the _loneliness._ Gnawing at her heart every minute. It was _unbearable._ She wanted to rip her aching heart out of her body. Gouged out her eyes so she wouldn't have to see that _man._ The man with the silver hair and dark eyes.

"Meredy?!" Footsteps pounded towards her. Ultear burst into the tent, eyes wide and panicked.

But she was not looking at the older woman. She was awake, but her mind was still submerged in her nightmare.

Unconsciously, she lifted her hand and pressed it against her chest. Remembering.

The pain and loneliness that was all too foreign and familiar at the same time. She closed her eyes briefly, wading deeper into the memory of the nightmare.

"Meredy, what's wrong?" Ultear asked frantically as she wiped tears off her cheeks.

How was she going to explain anything to Ultear when she herself does not know the answer to that?

"Meredy!" Ultear shouted in her face, drawing her attention back to reality. "Did you have a nightmare?"

"Yes. Yes." She said, her voice stilted. "It – It was awful."

"Tell me." Ultear coaxed, slipping into the sleeping bag so she could pull the younger girl closer.

She gasped out a sob. "Fire and destruction. Everywhere. People dying, and I – I was helpless. I was so scared, and _angry._ The world was... was being destroyed. And – And I was so, so alone. Everyone was gone. Everyone I loved. I lost you, Ul. And then I lost Jellal."

She buried her face into her hands, shuddering violently. Behind her lids, she could see the world collapsing around her. She could see a man standing in front of her.

"And a silver-haired man..." She hiccupped, tears sliding down her cheeks. "His eyes... they were terribly sad, like he had lost everything. Like he had no more reason to live."

She let out a heart breaking wail, curling into herself. Ultear stared at her in bewilderment, her hand absently going up and down the crying girl's back soothingly.

"I – I have never met him before, and – and I don't know why it affects me this badly. But I feel like I should know him and I hate myself for not being able to." Meredy sniffled. "Who is he? Why do I feel like I know him? Why does his sadness hurt me this badly? W – Why do I want to stop his pain so much?!"

She looked up at Ultear with such despair that the latter felt her heart broke.

"Help me, Ul." She whispered. "What does this means?"

Ultear wished she could give her an answer. Meredy's nightmares had always been about her childhood home being destroyed, or Ultear and Jellal leaving her. This was a new one. This sounded like the future.

But what sort of future was this? It sounded more like a dystopia instead.

She closed her eyes and hugged Meredy tighter. She hoped and prayed to the gods that such a future would never come true.


End file.
